catch on
Britishverb
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to become popular or fashionable
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to grasp mentally; understand
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Understand, as in Aunt Mary doesn't catch on to any jokes . The verb to catch alone was used with this meaning from Shakespeare's time, on being added in the late 1800s. Also see get it , def. 2.
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Become popular, as in This new dance is really beginning to catch on . [Late 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When he tried a swipe, the ball looped up to be caught on the leg side, only for the umpire to signal no-ball.
From BBC
The company fired an executive this week who was allegedly caught on tape saying the company’s soup was “highly processed,” made for “poor people” and used lab-grown and 3-D printed chicken.
Campbell’s CPB -0.08%decrease; red down pointing triangle said it fired the executive allegedly caught on audio disparaging the company’s products.
“Your structure may catch on fire,” Smith said.
From Los Angeles Times
Artificial intelligence took the idea to an extreme, and investors are catching on.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
